In recent past, the compact disk read-only-memory (CD-ROM) technology has profoundly transformed the way video and audio are stored and disseminated. On the audio front, the audio CD-ROM technology has made phonograph an obsolete technology. In the video field, the video CD-ROM technology is rapidly making inroads into the arena previously occupied by traditional video tape technology as video CD-ROMs (e.g., multimedia CD-ROM disks, karaoke CD-ROM disks, DVDs, etc.) are becoming increasingly popular. In particular, the Video CD-ROM technology offers more efficient access and portability over the traditional video tape.
In order to facilitate migration to CD-ROM technologies, the Moving Photographic Expert Group (MPEG) has set up several well known standards for compression of digital audio and video transmission at various bit rates. In particular, MPEG-1 standard was developed for storing and distributing video and audio, with emphasis on video quality. MPEG-1 facilitates coding of video for digital storage media such as CD-ROM at rates of 1 to 1.5 Megabits per second (Mb/s). In addition to forward playback, some features of MPEG-1 include random access, fast forward, and reverse playback. This standard is widely used for storing and distributing video CDs and many video games.
Today, due in large part to these advantages, the CD-ROM technology has been widely incorporated into personal computers. Indeed, the majority of personal computers sold today include a CD-ROM drive of one type or another. This incorporation of the CD-ROM technology in computer systems has largely coincided with the popularity of multimedia applications containing text, graphics, images, audio, video, etc. For instance, the multimedia marketplace is replete with various educational and entertainment CD-ROM disks that allow a user to browse the contents of the disks interactively. These disks typically contain a menu or a browser that enable the user to interactively browse or navigate through the contents of the disks in a nonsequential manner.
Unfortunately, the multimedia CD-ROM disks typically require a computer system equipped with a CD-ROM drive (i.e., player) to browse and playback the contents. Even today, a typical low-end computer costs around $1,000. Hence, a user without a computer must invest a substantial amount of money to be able to use the multimedia CD-ROM disks.
A standalone Video CD player, on the other hand, usually costs less than $200 in today's market and plays the contents of a VCD or CD disk directly on a TV set or a stereo system. For example, the conventional audio CD player plays audio CD-ROM disks to a stereo system and conventional video CD player (e.g., karaoke player, video CD player, DVD player, etc.) plays video CDs directly onto a standard TV.
Although standalone CD-ROM system connected to a TV plays CD-ROM disks containing only video with little trouble, playing back the content of a CD-ROM disk multimedia disk has posed more of a challenge. For example, while browsing the disk in a browser mode (e.g., text, browser, menu, etc.), a user may choose to play a video clip. However, playing a video such as movies and video clips generally requires a large bandwidth and resources. In particular, in a standalone CD-ROM system without the processing resources of a full computer system, playing a video clip typically requires that an MPEG decoder have exclusive access to the resources in the system such as memory (e.g., random access memory). In the inexpensive standalone CD-ROM system with limited resources, the MPEG decoder's monopoly of the resources typically displaces the content of the memory including the addresses and data associated with the original browser mode.
Thus, what is needed is a method and system for returning to the original browser (e.g., browser, menu, etc.) mode after playing a video in a standalone CD-ROM system. The present invention satisfies these needs by providing a method that switches between the browser and video modes in a standalone CD-ROM system.